Pierce flashed a hand gesture at Horford and attempted to stare him down. The Atlanta center thumped his chest and yelled back at Pierce, who was finally dragged back to the Celtics bench.

"It's an emotional game. It's something that kind of just happens in the moment," Horford said yesterday. "It was spontaneous."

He's not making any apologies, though, and the Hawks can only hope Horford stays in the moment. The grit, leadership and emotion shown by the former Florida standout is at least giving Atlanta a glimmer of hope in their opening-round series against the Celtics.

Horford was a force in Atlanta's Game 3 upset, scoring 17 points, grabbing a game-high 14 rebounds and adding six assists. He'll need to keep it up tonight when the Hawks try to even the best-of-seven series at two games apiece.

If nothing else, Horford sure doesn't look like a rookie.

"I want our team to win," he said. "I just felt I had to do something to help us."

The Celtics have sure taken note of Horford's impact. He's averaging 15.3 points, 11 rebounds and 3.7 assists through the first three games.

After sitting through a long film session with the rest of his teammates yesterday, Pierce shrugged off Horford's antics.

"He's a young player," Pierce said. "He's getting caught up in the moment. We're moving on. We're a veteran team. We're not going to get caught up in that."

Boston is still the team to beat in this series, despite its 102-93 loss Saturday night. The Celtics had the league's best record (66-16), finished 29 games ahead of the Hawks in the Eastern Conference and have the home-court advantage.

The Celtics can put themselves in position to wrap up the series at home by winning tonight, but they must play with more passion — especially at the defensive end. Josh Smith had five dunks on Saturday, which fired up the sellout crowd, which in turn gave the Hawks a huge emotional boost after their discouraging effort in Boston.

"We had a slight coolness about us. They were able to get back and score easy on us," Celtics guard Ray Allen said. "We can't get too arrogant, thinking a team's going to lay down for us."

Boston coach Doc Rivers made a biting commentary on his team's effort when someone asked him what went on during the lengthy film session.

"We had an ice cream social," Rivers joked. "That's how we played."

The Celtics plan to come out with a lot more intensity tonight, and they'll no doubt take a few verbal jabs at Horford.

Bring it on, the rookie replied. "They've been talking since Game 1," Horford said. "And we've been talking back."

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